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1931–Publisher and business magnate, (Keith) Rupert Murdoch, is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors News Corp and 21st Century Fox after the conglomerate split on June 28, 2013. In the 1950s and 1960s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World, followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974, to expand into the U.S. market. His News Corporation acquired HarperCollins in 1989 and The Wall Street Journal in 2007. By 2000, Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of over $5 billion.


BC 1425–Egyptian Pharaoh, Thutmose III, dies at age 56. He was buried in the Valley of the Kings, as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. The mummy of Thutmose III now resides in the Royal Mummies Hall of the Cairo Museum. He was the sixth Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. During the first 22 years of Thutmose's reign, he was co-regent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. After her death, and his later rise to Pharaoh of the Kingdom, he created the largest empire Egypt had ever seen.

222–Roman Emperor, Elagabalus, dies in Rome, Italy, at age 18. He was assassinated and replaced by his cousin, Alexander Severus, in a plot formulated by his grandmother, Julia Maesa, and carried out by disaffected members of the Praetorian Guard. Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry: he has one of the worst reputations among Roman emperors. According to B.G. Niebuhr, "The name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others because of his unspeakably disgusting life."

378–Pope Innocent I is born in Albano, Italy.

452–Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei dies at age 44.

638–Sophronius of Jerusalem dies in Jerusalem at age 78. He was venerated as a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

1198–Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, dies in the nunnery of Fontaines-les-Nones near Meaux, County of Champagne, at age 52.

1387–English condottiero, Sir John Hawkwood, leads Padova to victory in a factional clash with Verona.

1514–Renaissance architect, Donato Bramante, dies in Rome, Italy, at age 70. His plan for St. Peter's Basilica was the basis of the design which would be executed by Michelangelo.

1641–Guaraní forces living in the Jesuit reductions defeat bandeirantes loyal to the Portuguese Empire at the Battle of Mbororé in present-day Panambí, Argentina.

1649–The Frondeurs and the French sign the Peace of Rueil.

1669–Volcano Etna erupts in Italy, killing 15,000 people.

1689–Indian Emperor, Sambhaji Bhosale, is executed in Tulapur-Vadhu District, Pune, Maharashtra, India, at age 31.

1702–England's first national daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published for the first time near Fleet Street in London.

1708–Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, and this will be the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.

1726–Writer, Louise Florence Pétronille Tardieu d'Esclavelles d'Épinay, is born in Valenciennes, France. A friend of Denis Diderot, liaison of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and guest of Voltaire, she will become famous for her Conversations of Emily and three volumes of Memoirs and Correspondence. Her pseudo-memoires are written in the form of a sort of autobiographic romance, L'Histoire de Madame de Montbrillant, begun when she was 30, but never published in her lifetime.

1731–Judge Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

1745–Burmese King Bodawpaya is born Maung Shwe Waing in Moksobo, Burma. He was the sixth King of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma. He fathered 62 sons and 58 daughters by about 200 consorts.

1779–The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1784–The signing of the Treaty of Mangalore brings the Second Anglo-Mysore War to an end.

1794–The Royal Theatre opens in Dury Lane in London, England.

1811–During André Masséna's retreat from the Lines of Torres Vedras, a division led by French Marshal Michel Ney fights off a combined Anglo-Portuguese force to give Masséna time to escape.

1824–The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

1845–Henry Jones invents self-rising flour in England.

1845–Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti, and Maori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.

1845–John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) dies of natural causes in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at age 70. He was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present day West Virginia. He became an American legend while still alive, due to his kind, generous ways, his leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples. He never married.

1848–Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.

1851–The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice, Italy.

1861–The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.

1864–A flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.

1867–The first performance of Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Paris, France.

1872–Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery in South Wales begins. It is located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.

1873–Producer and director, David Horsley, is born in West Stanley, Durham, England. He co-founded Universal Studios.

1879–Sho Tai formally abdicates his position of King of Ryukyu, under orders from Tokyo, Japan, ending the Ryukyu Kingdom.

1888–One of the most severe blizzards in recorded U.S. history hits the East Coast, bringing snowfalls of 20 to 60 inches across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Winds of more than 45 mph, with gusts up to 80 mph, produced drifts averaging 40 feet, burying homes. The highest accumulations were in upstate New York, with 58 inches of snow falling in Saratoga Springs, and a drift measuring over 52 feet forming in Gravesend, New York. The storm results in 400 deaths.

1890–Vannevar Bush develops the first electronic analogue computer.

1895–Shemp Howard, of The Three Stooges, is born Samuel Horwitz in Manhattan, New York. Shemp's role as the third Stooge was much different from Curly's. While he could still roll with the punches in response to Moe's slapstick abuse, he was more of a laid-back dimwit, as opposed to Curly's energetic man-child persona. Shemp appeared with Moe and Larry (Fine) in 73 short subjects and the feature film Gold Raiders. Moe Howard and Curly Howard were his younger brothers.

1897–A meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage, but no human injuries are reported.

1899–Frederick IX of Denmark is born at Sorgenfri Palace, located in the Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality in Greater Copenhagen, Denmark.

1903–Bandleader, Lawrence Welk, is born in Strasburg, North Dakota. He hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans (and critics) as “champagne music.” Befitting the target audience, the type of music on The Lawrence Welk Show was almost always conservative, concentrating on popular music standards, polkas, and novelty songs, delivered in a smooth, calm, good-humored, easy listening style and "family-oriented" manner. Welk’s highest charting record was Calcutta, which achieved hit status in 1961.

1911–Politician, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, is born Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños in Ciudad Serdán, Puebla, Mexico. He was President of Mexico.

1916–(James) Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1964-1970 and 1974-1976), is born in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

1917–During World War I, Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Stanley Maude.

1918–The first cases of the deadly “Spanish Influenza” in America are reported at the Army hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas. The pandemic will kill more than 600,000 in the U.S. and nearly 40 million people worldwide.

1920–D.J. Enright, poet, novelist, and editor of The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse, is born in Leamington, Warwickshire, England.

1927–Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City. It is a showplace among the palace tradition of movie theaters, with a screen of 18-feet by 22-feet. It cost $10,000,000 to build and held 6,200 patrons. The first feature shown at the Roxy was The Loves of Sunya, starring Gloria Swanson and John Boles. The Roxy truly was part of the “golden age of the movie palace.”

1927–The Flatheads Gang commits the first armored-car robbery near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The heist brought them $104,250.

1931–Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.

1931–Publisher and business magnate, (Keith) Rupert Murdoch, is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors News Corp and 21st Century Fox after the conglomerate split on June 28, 2013. In the 1950s and 1960s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World, followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974, to expand into the U.S. market. His News Corporation acquired HarperCollins in 1989 and The Wall Street Journal in 2007. By 2000, Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of over $5 billion.

1932–Boomming Ben, the last heath Hen, was seen for the final time. The heath hen was a distinctive subspecies of the greater prairie chicken, a large North American bird in the grouse family, or possibly a distinct species, that became extinct in 1932. Many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured heath hens and not wild turkey.

1934–Newsman, Sam Donaldson, is born in El Paso, Texas. Donaldson was hired by ABC News as a Washington correspondent in October 1967. In 1971, Donaldson covered the war in Vietnam for ABC News. He was ABC's chief Watergate correspondent in 1973-1974, covering the trial of the Watergate burglars, the Senate Watergate hearings, and the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation of President Nixon. Donaldson covered Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign and became the network's White House Correspondent in January 1977, a post he held until January 1989. Donaldson anchored the ABC Sunday Evening News from its inception in 1979 until August 1989.

1935–The Bank of Canada opens.

1936–U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Antonin (Gregory) Scalia, is born in Trenton, New Jersey. Appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing.

1937–American oil industrialist, Joseph S. Cullinan, dies of pneumonia in Palo Alto, California, at age 66. Although he was a native of Pennsylvania, his lifetime business endeavors would help shape the early phase of the oil industry in Texas. He founded The Texas Company, which would eventually be known as Texaco Incorporated.

1940–Mike Hugg, drummer for Manfred Mann, is born Michael John Hugg in Gosport, Hampshire, England. He composed the majority of the songs for the 1968 Paramount film Up The Junction.

1941–President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill (to lend money to Britain).

1945–The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll, in Operation Tan No. 2.

1945–The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established with Bao Dai as its ruler.

1946–Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.

1947–Mark Stein, vocalist and organist for Vanilla Fudge, is born in Bayonne, New Jersey.

1948–The Audio Engineering Society is founded in New York City.

1950–Singer, Bobby McFerrin, is born Robert Keith McFerrin, Jr. in Manhattan, New York. He is best known for his 1988 hit song Don't Worry, Be Happy.

1950–Film director, Jerry Zucker, is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His films include Airplane!, Top Secret!, Ruthless People, Naked Gun, Ghost, First Knight, Fair Game, and Friends with Benefits.

1951–Actress and model, Dominique Sanda, is born Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris, France. She has appeared in the films Without Apparent Motive, Story of a Love Story, The Mackintosh Man, Steppenwolf, Beyond Good and Evil, Damnation Alley, Utopia, and The Wings of a Dove.

1952–Writer, Douglas (Noel) Adams, is born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. He is best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies.

1953–Reportedly, an American B-47 accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Carolina. The bomb doesn't detonate due to six safety catches.

1953–Record producer, Jimmy Iovine, is born in Brooklyn, New York. He co-founded Interscope Records and Beats Electronics. Since the beginning of his career, Iovine has been involved in the production of more than 250 albums. Among them are Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen), Walls and Bridges (John Lennon), Bat Out of Hell (Meatloaf), Bella Donna (Stevie Nicks), Damn the Torpedoes (Tom Petty), and Under a Red Blood Sky (U2).

1954–Actor, James (Edward) Fleet, is born in Bilston, Staffordshire, England. He is best known for the role of the dimwitted Hugo Horton in the BBC TV series The Vicar of Dibley. He has appeared in the films Electric Mon, Blue Black Permanent, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Butterfly Effect, Remember Me?, Milk, Charlotte Gray, and The Phantom of the Opera.

1955–Jimmy Fortune, of The Statler Brothers, is born in Staunton, Virginia. Hits with the group include Elizabeth, Too Much on My Heart, My Only Love, and More Than a Name on a Wall.

1955–Singer, Nina Hagen, is born Catharina Hagen in East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. Hagen is often referred to as the "Godmother of Punk." She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism.

1955–Oscar Mayer, Bavarian-born American meat packer, dies in his sleep in Chicago, Illinois, at age 96. He founded the Oscar Meyer processed meat company.

1956–Joey Buttafuoco is born Joseph A. Buttafuoco in Massapequa, New York. He is an auto body shop owner from Long Island. He is best known for having had an affair with Amy Fisher, who at 17, subsequently shot Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face. Popular news coverage titled Fisher the "Long Island Lolita." Buttafuoco subsequently pled guilty to one count of statutory rape and served four months in jail.

1957–Explorer, Richard E. Byrd, dies in his sleep of a heart aliment in Boston, Massachusetts, at age 68. He was an American naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. By the time he died, he had amassed 22 citations and special commendations, nine of which were for bravery and two for extraordinary heroism in saving the lives of others. In addition, he received the Medal of Honor, the Silver Lifesaving Medal, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Navy Cross, and had three ticker-tape parades.

1958–Child actress, (Mary) Anissa Jones, is born in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is best known for the role as Buffy on the sitcom Family Affair. Upon turning 18, in March 1976, Jones gained control of saved earnings from her work in Family Affair, about $180,000 (equal to $746,000 today) as well as an undetermined amount of U.S. Savings Bonds, both of which had been held for her in a trust fund. She appeared in the films The Trouble with Girls and To Rome With Love.

1958–Ole Kirk Christiansen, Danish inventor of Legos, dies of a heart attack at age 66. He came up with the name Lego from the Danish words leg godt, meaning "play well," and the company grew to become the Lego Group.

1962–Actor, Jeffrey (Richard) Nordling, is born in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He is best known for the roles of Jake Manning in Once and Again, Larry Moss in 24, and Nick Bolen in Desperate Housewives. He appeared in the films Working Girl, Sex and the City, Pirates of Silicon Valley, and Tron: Legacy.

1962–Author, Will Vesper, dies in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany, at age 79. His most famous work is Tristan und Isolde.

1964–The 21st Annual Golden Globe Awards announces its winners. Best Picture: The Cardinal; Best Actor: Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field; Best Actress: Leslie Caron for The L-Shaped Room; Best Director: Elia Kazan for America, America; Best Comedy: Tom Jones.

1964–Actress, Emma Chambers, is born Emma Gwynedd Mary Chambers in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. She is best known for the role of Alice Tinker in the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibleyher and for co-starring role in the film Notting Hill.

1965–A chart topper: It’s Not Unusual by Tom Jones.

1965–Politician, Jesse (Louis) Jackson, Jr., is born in Greenville, South Carolina. He is a former Democratic Congressman who represented Illinois's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until his resignation in 2012. He is the son of civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson.

1967–The Beatles are awarded Grammy awards for 1966: Song of the Year (Lennon-McCartney for Michelle), Best Solo Vocal Performance (Paul McCartney for Eleanor Rigby), and Best Album Cover (Klaus Voormann for Revolver).

1967–Jean-Luc Godard's One Plus One, starring The Rolling Stones, opens in America. The obtuse film features Godard's trademark Marxist lecturing interspersed with scenes of the Stones composing Sympathy for the Devil. The producers later recut the footage to include more of Mick Jagger and redub the movie Sympathy for the Devil. Critics remain baffled.

1967–The Beatles music publisher, Dick James, announces that Yesterday is the most covered song of all time, with 446 versions.

1968–Singer-songwriter, Lisa (Anne) Loeb, is born in Bethesda, Maryland. She launched her career in 1994, with the song Stay (I Missed You), which was included in the film Reality Bites.

1969–The Jackson 5 sign a recording contract with Motown.

1970–The 12th Annual Grammy Awards announces its winners. Record of the Year: The 5th Dimension for Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In; Album of the Year: Blood, Sweat & Tears for Blood, Sweat & Tears; Song of the Year: Joe South for Games People Play; Best Vocal Performance, Male: Harry Nilsson for Everybody's Talkin'; Best Vocal Performance, Female: Peggy Lee for Is That All There Is?; Best Performance by a Vocal Group: The 5th Dimension for Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In; Best Country & Western Performance: Tammy Wynette for Stand By Your Man; Best Rhythm & Blues Performance: Aretha Franklin for Share Your Love With Me; Best Instrumental Performance: Blood, Sweat & Tears for Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie; Best New Artist: Crosby, Stills & Nash. The ceremonies are held Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles, California; and New York. There is no host.

1970–Author and lawyer, Erle Stanley Gardner, dies in Temecula, California, at age 80. He was the prolific writer of the “Perry Mason” mystery series, which totaled 82 books. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center houses Gardner's manuscripts, and contains a miniaturized reproduction of his study room. Eventually Perry Mason became a long-running TV series starring Raymond Burr in the title role. Though Burr originally auditioned for the role of district attorney Hamilton Burger, Gardner reportedly insisted that he be cast as Mason. Gardner made an uncredited appearance as a judge in "The Case of the Final Fade-Out," the last episode of the original series.

1971–American television networks ABC, NBC, and CBS are told by the Federal Communications Commission that a limited three-hour nightly program service (or “prime time”) would begin in September. The network programs were to be slotted between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on the East and West coasts, and an hour earlier in the Central and Mountain time zones.

1975–The USSR conducts a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh.

1975–North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla forces establish control over the Buon Ma Thuot commune from the South Vietnamese army.

1977–More than 130 hostages held by Hanafi Muslims in Washington, D.C., are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.

1978–At least 37 people are killed and more than 70 others are wounded, when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani.

1981–Hundreds of students protest in the University of Pristina in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, to give their republic more political rights. The protests then become a nationwide movement.

1982–Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat sign a Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.

1982–Actress, Thora Birch, is born in Los Angeles, California. She has appeared in the films Purple People Eater, Paradise, Patriot Games, Hocus Pocus, Clear and Present Danger, Now and Then, American Beauty, Anywhere But Here, Ghost World, Winter of Frozen Dreams, and Petunia. She is the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors, former adult film actors who appeared in the pornographic film Deep Throat.

1983–Pakistan successfully conducts a cold test of a nuclear weapon.

1983–Bob Hawke is appointed Prime Minister of Australia.

1985–Mikhail S. Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet Premier.

1985–Al Fayed buys the department store Harrods of London.

1987–Extremely cold weather persists in the southeastern U.S. A storm over the Gulf of Mexico spreads rain, sleet, and snow into the Appalachian Region. Sleet is reported in southern Mississippi.

1988–The British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by the pound coin.

1988–Iran and Iraq agree to stop attacking civilian centers.

1989–Actor, Anton (Viktorovich) Yelchin, is born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR (present-day Saint Petersburg, Russia). He is best known for portraying Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot series, appearing in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and he will appear posthumously in Star Trek Beyond (2016). He also appeared in the films Along Came a Spider, Fierce People, Middle of Nowhere, and Terminator Salvation.

1990–Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically elected Chilean President since 1970.

1990–Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

1991–Pop singer, Janet Jackson, signs a $40 million, three-album deal with Virgin Records.

1992–Film director, Richard Brooks, dies of congestive heart failure in Studio City, California, at age 79. His films include Crisis, The Light Touch, Take the High Ground!, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Blackboard Jungle, The Catered Affair, Something of Value, The Brothers Karamazov, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, Sweet Bird of Youth, Lord Jim, In Cold Blood, The Happy Ending, and Looking For Mr Goodbar.

1993–Janet Reno is confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.

1996–America Online agrees to use Netscape as the primary Web browser offered to its subscribers.

1996–Actor, Vince Edwards, dies of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 67. He is best known for the title role in the TV medical drama, Ben Casey. He appeared in the films The Night Holds Terror, Serenade, The Killing, Hit and Run, The Hired Gun, The Three Faces of Eve, City of Fear, The Scavengers, Too Late Blues, The Outsider, Hammerhead, The Mad Bomber, The Seduction, Space Raiders, and Deal of the Century.

1997–An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination. It is the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.

1997–Paul McCartney is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1999–Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

2003–The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.

2004–A series of explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, kill 192 people.

2006–Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female President of Chile.

2006–A record of no rain in Phoenix, Arizona, finally ends at 143 days. The last measured rain fell in the area on October 18, 2005.

2006–Politician, Slobodan Milosevic, dies of a heart attack in his prison cell in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention center in The Hague, Netherlands, at age 64. He was the first President of Serbia.

2007–Georgia claims Russian helicopters attacked the Kodori Valley in Abkhazia, an accusation that Russia later categorically denies.

2007–Actress, Betty Hutton, dies of colon cancer complications in Palm Springs, California, at age 86. She appeared in the films The Miracle at Morgan Creek, Incendiary Blonde, The Perils of Pauline, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Greatest Show on Earth.

2009–Sixteen people are killed and 11 others are injured at the Winnenden school in Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany, before recent-graduate, Tim Kretschmer, shoots and kills himself.

2010–Economist and businessman, Sebastián Piñera, is sworn in as President of Chile, while three earthquakes, all centered next to Pichilemu, the capital of Cardenal Caro province, hit central Chile.

2010–Actor and football player, Merlin Olsen, dies of peritoneal mesothelioma in Duarte, California, at age 69. He played his entire 15-year career as a defensive tackle with the Los Angeles Rams (1962-1976). He is best known for the role of farmer Jonathan Garvey on the TV series Little House on the Prairie. He appeared in the films The Undefeated, One More Train to Rob, Something Big, and Mitchell.

2011–Japan is struck by the most powerful earthquake to hit the island nation in recorded history. The 8.9 magnitude temblor, which was centered near the east coast of Japan, killed hundreds of people, caused the formation of 30-foot walls of water that swept across rice fields, engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats around like toys. Some waves reached six miles inland in Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's east coast. The nuclear power plant at Fukushima would later be severely damaged in the tsunami that followed the earthquake. It would prove to be a worldwide hazard, as radiation would begin to pour from the damaged containers. Millions of people watched the disaster take place live on satellite TV.

2012–A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan, near Kandahar.

2013–The European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals.

2014–The Republic of Crimea declares its independence.

2015–Musician, Jimmy Greenspoon, dies of metastatic melanoma in North Potomac, Maryland, at age 67. He was the Hammond keyboard player for Three Dog Night, up until his health began to fail. He was diagnosed with cancer in October 2014, and launched a campaign via the GoFundMe.com website to help his family cover his medical expenses.

2016–Retired neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate, Ben Carson, formally endorses Donald Trump for President at the front-runner’s Mar-a-Lago landmark estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

2016–A report by a team of Japanese scientists, published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal, Science, has identified bacteria (isolated from outside a bottle recycling facility) that can break down and metabolize plastic. The microbe appears to have evolved a pair of enzymes it uses to break down polyethylene terephthalate or PET, the most common thermoplastic polymer resin in consumer products.

2016–Following heavy rain near São Paulo, Brazil, at least 21 people are killed by flooding and mudslides.

2017–After eight years in power, the Liberal Party in Australia is defeated by the Labor Party in a landslide election. Mark McGowan is set to become the state's new Premier.

2017–A set of new NASA Cassini mission photos reveals that Saturn’s tiny moon, Pan, resembles a ravioli.

2018–China's National People's Congress approves the removal of presidential term limits in a move that allows current president Xi Jinping to remain president for life.

2018–The suspension of Facebook will remain in place until the Sri Lankan anti-Muslim riots end. This is an ongoing series of religious riots targeting Muslims, beginning in the Sri Lankan town of Ampara on February 26, 2018. It had started in the Kandy District on March 2, 2018. Muslim citizens, mosques and other properties are attacked by mobs of Sinhalese Buddhists, and mobs of Muslims performed attacks on Buddhists Temples and Sinhalese citizens. The Government of Sri Lanka undertakes a crack down on the rioting by imposing a state of emergency and deploying the Sri Lankan Armed Forces to assist the Police in the effected areas.

2018–Comedian, Ken Dodd, dies at his home in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, England, at age 90. Two days before his death he married his partner of 40 years, Anne Jones. Known as "the last great music hall entertainer," his stage career lasted over 60 years.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Pharaoh Thutmose III; Mount Etna; The Royal Theatre in Drury Lane; David Horsley; Lawrence Welk; heath hens; the Texaco star; Bobby McFerrin; Douglas Adams; Nina Hagen; Anissa Jones; Lillies of the Field poster; sheet music for Yesterday; Thora Birch; a £1 coin; Vince Edwards; Betty Hutton; and the tsunami in Japan on March 2011.
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